LewTwo
1 MW
I have done a bit of research on those. They do have one of the shorter 26 inch forks: 475mm. Does adjusting the travel affect the fork length (relaxed, crown to axle)?2old said:
Suspension Forks, Talk to me
- Thread starter LewTwo
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Chalo
100 TW
LewTwo said:
If you shorten the fork's travel by using a longer spacer between the bushings (increasing the overlap between stanchion and slider), then it will have a reduced axle-to-crown length at full extension.
sleepy_tired
100 W
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Personally I have replaced the forks on my mountain bikes with rigid forks. I am not interested in going fast off-road and spend most of my time on paved and dirt roads and paths were they are not necessary at bicycle speeds. The tires are the most important part of the suspension so if you have nice big tires then a suspension fork is redundant for road going bike.
As far as pot holes and shitty concrete goes... just go around them. You don't have to plow through crap you see on the road. Your tire contact patch is only about the size of a quarter. That is all the smooth pavement you need.
Sure if you are going very fast suspension is absolutely necessary, but that's beyond bicycle speeds. If I want to go fast I'll use something other then bicycles.
As far as pot holes and shitty concrete goes... just go around them. You don't have to plow through crap you see on the road. Your tire contact patch is only about the size of a quarter. That is all the smooth pavement you need.
Sure if you are going very fast suspension is absolutely necessary, but that's beyond bicycle speeds. If I want to go fast I'll use something other then bicycles.
Assuming there *is* any smooth pavement within the path you have to take on the road. (for instance, if you're riding on the roads with traffic passing you at their speeds, which you can't match for either technical or legal reasons, and the part of the road you're on has patches of unavoidable debris or holes, etc).sleepy_tired said:
That said, some time back, after breaking the crown of my suspension fork on the SB Cruiser trike, and riding for a short time with a single-crown rigid fork that began to bend at the crown from braking forces, I ended up building a rigid dual-crown fork for it, and it still rides about as well as it did before--it makes some difference towards the negative, but not as much as I expected. (and the fork has had no problems from forces applied to it, either).
The rear end, which is the heaviest part, even when not loaded with cargo or a dog, has much smaller wheels and no suspension, and it takes a beating (have broken rims and even axles)...I'd love to just install suspension on those wheels...but it is not nearly that easy (or I would have done it long ago).
LewTwo
1 MW
sleepy_tired said:
I am not into slalom racing and the "pavement problems" frequently extend the full width of what passes for 'bike lanes' in Houston.
Chalo
100 TW
LewTwo said:
In the hours of darkness, or when I'm doing delicate negotiations with sociopaths in cars, I often get sucker punched by sunken service covers, negligent concrete slops, abrupt steps up or down in the lane level, poorly repaired cuts in the pavement that span the whole street, or worst of all clumsy and half-assed attempts at rudimentary bike lane protection. Nothing like hitting a serving bowl sized concrete dome that wouldn't even slow down a car that was coming to flatten you, but could easily sprawl you out in the street.
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